Battleroids & Terminators
by benjammindeth
Summary: Terminator:TSCC/Marathon 2 crossover. Rated M for safety due to violence, some of it spectacular, and coarse language. Some Derek/Sarah interaction, more John/Cameron. Chapters 1-4 reformatted and more viewer-friendly. Now complete, please Read & Review!
1. A Battleroid's Journey

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, please don't sue me!

A/N: Marathon/Terminator crossover AU, so the characters might be a bit off.

**August 29, 2881 AD  
Pfhor home system**

_Rozinante_ was quiet, given that the battle to defeat the Pfhor Empire had ended six hours before and the only two beings on board were Durandal, the A.I. that controlled the ship, and the 10th Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg that was originally brought onboard the U.E.S.C. _Marathon_. Durandal's holographic avatar was a lime green disembodied male human head with animations of electron orbital shells in place of eyes. The cyborg was unable to remember his original name from before his death and eventual conversion into a Battleroid, but had taken to calling himself Dave Mustaine after the front man from a 20th century Earth band called Megadeth.

Durandal was running diagnostics and dispatching repair drones as needed while Dave was asleep, exhausted from blasting his way up and down _Rozinante_ to keep Durandal's core unharmed. The Pfhor had tried teleporting in all over the ship, but the defense drones eliminated most of them. Where the drones had failed, Dave was sent in to clean up. The battle above the aliens' homeworld had lasted for two months, while the battle on board had been happening intermittently for six years, depending on what Durandal had stuck his non-existent nose into.

Dave was dreaming about Earth, looking peaceful in his long-deserved sleep. His dreams presented him with two female figures and one male, refueling at a gas station in the desert of Texas.

* * *

_The woman was looking on, wondering about her teenage son and the girl with him, as if something about her was… inhuman. She was also wondering about how she was to keep at least her son alive given that the world was to end in exactly two months. Her reverie was interrupted when a tall, muscular American male approached the gas station they were at and looked over at the boy. _

_The girl saw him and immediately whipped out her Glock 19 handgun, opening fire only for the rounds to spark off his head. The man, now obviously a robot, walked up to the girl and viciously backhanded her into the storefront window. _

"_Cameron!" the boy yelled as the woman ordered him to run while she held it off. "Mom!" was all he had time to say before his mother, whom the robot's targeting system identified as Sarah Connor, was beheaded. _

_Cameron, who was also a robot, had recovered and threw the male robot into a gas pump, causing it to explode. She turned to the boy and told him, "Get me the toolbox!"_

_He moved to comply, but the robot, now with it's flesh burned off, lunged for him and grabbed his throat. In a purely machine voice it calmly stated, "I never dismissed you from class, John Connor." Suddenly, John remembered the alias this robot had used to try to murder him in school: Cromartie. _

_Cameron hit the robot over the head with a metal bar, causing it to release it's grip on John and focus on her. It uttered "Cameron Phillips, time for the scrap heap!" as it overpowered her and grabbed her gun._

_John had hidden himself in a Dumpster along with an illegally overpowered taser in case Cromartie came after him again. He was focused on getting out of the situation alive and with Cameron, readying the taser in case the robot found him. He only had to wait thirty seconds before it did, ripping the lid off the Dumpster in the process. John struck first, jabbing the taser in it's left optic and thumbing the fire button. Cromartie stood still for a few seconds, then fell over, temporarily deactivated. _

_Cameron brought the toolbox and removed the processor core from the robot. Enraged, John took the chip, placed it on the concrete, and smashed it with the tire iron from their car._

_John then turned to Sarah's headless body, saw her head two feet away, then collapsed to the ground and cried. First, the machines had killed his father. Then they had killed his uncle two years before, and now they had taken his mother. The only one he had left was Cameron, and even though she may have been built to kill him, there was no one he trusted more._

_She walked up next to him and remorsefully said, "I'm sorry, John. I wish it didn't have to happen this way." _

_He rose and asked her, "What now?" _

_She hugged him and whispered, "I'll take care of you, John. I promise." It was only then that John noticed she was crying too. Then she heard what should have been sirens, but sounded more like an alarm._

Durandal was sweeping the system with his sensors when the transmission from Earth arrived. The defense forces around the planet had detected a temporal distortion in Jupiter's orbit, but on the other side of the Sun. He set a course for the anomaly, arriving 11 hours later. Dave was still asleep, so Durandal investigated the anomaly himself. He determined that the anomaly was a wormhole to Earth's orbit, but he couldn't determine the other side's timeframe. When he tried to move in closer, it pulled _Rozinante_ right in, sending Durandal and Dave back several hundred years into the past.

* * *

**Unknown timeframe  
Aboard **_**Rozinante**_

Durandal started a quick diagnostic routine, searching for damage to his ship. There was no damage, but _Rozinante_ was without engines and headed straight for Luna. He engaged the impact alarm, or as Dave called it, the "Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die" alarm.

The alarm shattered Dave's state of sleep, prompting him to get suited up and talk to Durandal. Dave asked him "What the Hell's going on?"

"Let's see, we were opposite Jupiter investigating an anomaly in 2881, and now the engines are shot and we'll be crashing into Luna in approximately five minutes."

"Great, so where do I go from here?" asked Dave.

"I'm teleporting you and a stash of weapons and ammo to Earth in two minutes. Make sure your helmet comlink is working, accessible computer terminals are scarce there right now."

Dave picked up his .44 Magnum pistol, his Fusion Pistol, 30 spare magazines and 20 spare batteries. He had just finished getting ready when he felt the familiar sensation of dematerializing onboard _Rozinante_ and rematerialized on Earth.

* * *


	2. A Helping Hand

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, please don't sue me!

**Unknown timeframe  
****Earth**

Dave saw that he had materialized on a street somewhere in the United States several hundred years in the past, but he didn't have much time to think because a large black vehicle drove by with a green Jeep in hot pursuit. A teenage girl, who bore a striking resemblance to the robot called Cameron in his dreams, climbed out and commandeered the van by punching through the windshield and throwing one of the occupants out.

The woman driving, who looked exactly like Sarah Connor, drew on the van driver and told him to run, then ordered the young male, whom Dave had deduced to be John Connor, to "Take the Jeep and follow us."

Cameron opened the back of the van, and saw a man whom her files identified as Derek Reese look up at her in surprise. She cocked her head, then he stood up and snarled "Metal Bitch!" She deftly twisted his momentum into placing him in the passenger seat while Sarah told the man that she was on their side.

She then handed Cameron a submachine gun and told her "Triple-eight. Lose him."

Dave observed the events unfolding before him, then saw a man in an orange jumpsuit, running far too fast for a man, attempting to catch up to the van. Suddenly the van's rear doors burst open and Cameron emptied her magazine into the man, who turned out to be a robot.

Dave went into action immediately, whipping out his Fusion Pistol and putting several bolts into the robot, sending it sprawling to the ground, deactivated. He lowered his weapon when Cameron came over and looked at the robot, made sure it was powered off, then told John "Bring me the toolbox!"

Cameron turned to the stranger in front of her, scanned him and determined that he was not a Terminator, but some other variety of cyborg. She asked him, "What are you?"

His reply was, "I'm a Battleroid. I've forgotten my original name, but I named myself Dave Mustaine after the front man of a band called Megadeth. Do you know of them?"

John arrived at that moment with the toolbox, and Cameron asked him for a switchblade and pliers. John got them out for her, then turned to the large man standing nearby.

John would have sworn he had seen the man before, but his sense of déjà vu was more like a half-remembered fragment of an old dream, rather than instant recognition. He had overheard him telling Cameron what he was, and curiosity got the better of him. John asked Dave, "What's a Battleroid?"

Dave answered, "Well, I was a soldier in one future, then an accident with a time machine sent me forward about several hundred years. I arrived in the crossfire of a battle, and apparently died there. Then I woke up naked strapped to a lab table with a dull ache all over. I later found out that I'd had my skeleton replaced with one made of titanium, my muscles were genetically enhanced, and I'd had microchips implanted in my brain. I also found out that the year was 2469 A.D." Dave then asked John, "Why does this all seem familiar, like something from an old dream, but I can't exactly remember?"

"I don't know," was all John could say.

Sarah and Derek had joined the three at this point. Cameron had already extracted the chip from the robot, and she was about to question Sarah about being followed, but she cocked her head when she heard what year Dave woke up in: 2469 A.D. She turned to him and said, "I heard about the accidental future shift, but I was unaware that it was you, Dave."

Then Derek chimed in, asking "Dave Mustaine, our best fighter? That was you?" Then it clicked in Dave's mind who the man was.

"Derek Reese? Didn't Connor send you back with Sumner, Sayles, and Timms?"

"That he did, and they're all dead. It's just me now."

Sarah had been silent until Derek mentioned his Resistance cell. Then she snarled at Cameron, "Why didn't you tell me he was sent here?"

She was about to answer, but Dave held up his hand, saying "They didn't know I was going to be here and now, nor did I until Durandal and his impact alarm woke me, after we went through the wormhole in 2881 A.D."

John piped up, "2881? No wonder you have that energy weapon, whatever it is. And how the hell did you know who we all are, anyway?"

Dave asked, "What's today's date, anyway?"

"October 26, 2007," was Cameron's monotone reply. Dave was shocked to discover that he had traveled back 874 years.

Sarah heard the sirens and snapped, "All right Dave, you're on our side but you've got some storytelling to do once we get home."

Dave noticed a man on a motorcycle heading their way and quipped, "I guess I get to commandeer a bike then." He knocked the unfortunate man off the bike, then followed Sarah and company in their Jeep.

* * *

**20 minutes later  
****Baum (Connor) residence**

Dave and the others arrived at Sarah's house without incident, until Sarah opened the door. She saw a strange device teleport onto the table, and asked, "Dave, what the Hell? Did something just teleport onto my table?"

Dave immediately knew that Durandal was still online after crash-landing on Earth's moon, and that the teleporter array was still working. He examined the device, then turned to the others and told them, "It's a holoprojector coupled with a two-way communicator. Durandal's still online, he may be able to help us."

"Durandal, is he another AI?" John asked in disbelief.

Dave thumbed the button on the communicator and a hologram of a lime green disembodied head with electron orbital shell animations in place of eyes appeared before them. In his mechanical voice, Durandal intoned, "Dave Mustaine, it's good to see you're still alive and well. John, Sarah, Cameron, Derek, my name is Durandal. I'm transmitting from my ship, _Rozinante_, which crashed on Earth's moon 22 minutes ago. Engineering's been slagged, the armories are each a royal mess, the onboard factories need repairs, my weapons are shot, and there's hull breaches in several places. On the bright side, the force fields are holding, the teleporter array's intact, there's air in most places, my sensor and communications arrays are still functional, the repair drones are hard at work and my core is intact. Any questions?"

John was the first to pipe up, "Durandal, you're from 2881 A.D. right? When did the war with SkyNet end?"

"2027 A.D. is when the war ended, but in that timeline SkyNet managed to kill you with the last T-1000 mere moments before the fusion reactor was destroyed. Your soldiers destroyed the machine, Perry took the lead in rebuilding civilization, and out of grief Cameron sent herself back to 1999, when you met her in New Mexico."

"Wait a minute, Perry got Earth back on track? And how the fuck do machines have feelings? There's no way that's possible, it doesn't have feelings and neither do you!" Derek was skeptical of Durandal's claim that his old commanding officer would be the one to pick up the pieces, and that machines could ever feel.

Cameron angrily replied, "Yes, I do. And I'm about 2 inches from beating you to a pulp for your constant insults and anti-machine racism!"

Durandal coolly replied, "It's people like you that make me question the strange loyalty I've developed toward humanity. If I had a robotic body for an avatar, you would be dead where you stand, no matter your family situation."

"What the Hell are you talking about?! What goddamn family situation?"

Having been introduced to Derek in the Jeep, John decided to explain the situation himself, rather than let Durandal explain for him, and the consequences be damned. "Derek, did you ever wonder why I sent Kyle back to 1984? I sent him back not only to protect my mother, but also to be my father. Welcome home, uncle Derek."

Sarah and Derek stood shocked, Sarah unhappy that John would spill the beans about his lineage, and Derek was in awe that John was his nephew, and that Durandal knew about it.

Cameron threw in her two cents saying, "John, you told me this in the future, but also told me never to say that I knew until prompted because it might reach the wrong ears."

"Well, I'm glad you listened. Not that it matters now, because everyone here knows his lineage. Aren't temporal paradoxes just fun?!" Sarah sarcastically exclaimed, rather angry that anyone besides she and John knew who his father was.

Durandal broke the silence saying "I'll help you in your fight to stop SkyNet, but I need everyone to agree to a change of tactics."


	3. Plans and Revelations

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, please don't sue me!

A/N: I got the idea from the Season 2 Predictions and Plot Danglers page at Fox's official SCC wiki.

**October 26, 2007  
****Connor residence, Earth**

"Change of tactics? What, is destroying SkyNet's predecessors just not enough?" Sarah asked in disbelief.

"No, it's not. Even if you destroy every Terminator and all the other ingredients, SkyNet may still be created." Durandal calmly stated. "John and SkyNet are joined at the hip in a temporal sense. If SkyNet had not sent the first Terminator, John would not have sent Kyle Reese, and thus neither would exist."

Derek threw up his hands and said, "I hate temporal paradoxes! How the Hell do we beat SkyNet?"

John cut in with, "We keep trying to destroy it, but if it does come online, we have to change what it becomes." Turning to Cameron, he asked her, "If we prevent Judgment Day, will you still be here?"

"I don't know. In the future, we know that time travel is possible, but some of the particulars still escape us."

Durandal added, "Actually, anyone or anything that came back from that timeline will still be here. What we do now will result in a new timeline, but her personal history prior to her jump to 1999 is unaffected. Everything and everyone that has come back, even Dave and I, keep our histories. Only the future of this timeline will be affected."

Sarah asked, "John, what do you mean, 'change what it becomes?'"

"What I mean is to keep SkyNet from seeing any overriding reason to kill us all. Cam, you asked me once what it means to be human, and I told you that it was complex, and that you'd have to learn for yourself. Do you think you'll have a better idea of humanity by the time SkyNet goes online?"

"Yes. I can see where this is going, John, and who better to teach SkyNet humanity than one of it's own creations?" John winced at the last part, as it reminded him that even though he saw Cameron as more than just a robot and she was learning how to be human, in the core of her chip she was just like Cromartie.

Sarah and Derek shared a worried look. They were thinking the exact same thing, but Derek beat her to it. "How do we know that the metal won't build SkyNet herself? Are you sure that wasn't her plan all along, to lead us on then turn traitor on Judgment Day? To me it sounds like that's what the machines would do. Why should I trust you, metal bitch? Why-"

Derek didn't have the chance to finish his rant because Cameron finally had enough of him and backhanded him across the room making him knock the couch over when he landed on it.

"Some people never learn, do they? I don't care if you are John's uncle, no one insults me and my race without suffering for it!" Cameron snapped at him, preparing to choke Derek for his insolence.

John placed his hand on her shoulder and asked her, "Cam, is it really worth killing him? Don't get me wrong, he had it coming, but acting like that is only reinforcing his impression that you might eventually go bad. I trust you, Cameron, but I'm being forced to ask myself some very hard questions right now. One of those is basically the first question he asked. How do any of us know that SkyNet didn't hide some fractal embedded code that would be akin to subliminal messaging in humans telling you to ensure SkyNet's creation?"

"I'm not sorry for hitting Derek, and if the code you describe is in there, are you sure you would recognize it?" Cameron asked him, still angry but cooling off.

Dave cut in, "Durandal might, if you would agree to have your code examined. That means no altering her code without talking to John and Cameron first and being completely honest with everyone, all right? She's still a person, even if she's made of wires and metal."

* * *

Sarah was helping Derek onto the couch after putting it upright. "How bad is it?" she asked him.

"Ribs hurt like a bitch. You have any beer?"

"Yeah, I could use one too after what I've seen and heard today." She left the room, and soon came back with two bottles of Budweiser. They cracked their beers open and Sarah said, "To a hopeful future."

"Yeah, definitely." Derek clinked his bottle with hers, and downed the booze in a few gulps.

Sarah took hers more slowly, and asked Derek, "What, is it that bad?"

"No, I'm just used to barely drinkable rotgut. In the future, alcoholism and drug use are worse problems than they are now. People think they can escape the nightmares in a bottle, pipe, or needle. Sometimes they get lucky and are drunk or high when triple-eights show up to kill everyone, not even feeling it as they die. Besides, I don't trust the metal, I wouldn't understand what they're planning, and I hurt like Hell."

Sarah replied, "All this technology and computer stuff is over my head anyway, but John seems to understand it on a level even a machine would have a hard time with, like he cares about whether a robot has a right to live and be happy or whatever."

"That's the twisted part. I have trouble believing that myself, even knowing that those two are practically inseparable in the future. I'd like to know how a machine has feelings at all, much less for John. How the Hell did he fall for it in the first place?"

Sarah sighed in resignation. "I was afraid of that. I saw some subtle hints, but I… I didn't want to believe it. Then again, considering how absolutely fucked up the future is likely to be, this is almost normal. His hormones aren't what scare me, though."

"Then what is it that has you so afraid?"

"That he'll be attracted to her computerized attempt at a personality. Physically, I can understand his attraction there, but how… can he see Cameron as anything other than a killing machine?"

"I don't know either, but I'd swear it acts like a dumb T-800 in front of us so that we'll work with it. Maybe when the metal's alone with John is when she shows off this so-called 'personality.' He wouldn't have told her that, though. I saw him die, and killed the T-1000 myself. Before she left for the time machine, I'd have sworn I saw grief on her metal face."

Sarah sat and thought for a minute, then replied, "Well, maybe I'll see if John can convince her not to act so cold around the rest of us. Maybe keep everyone from beating on each other without damned good reason."

Derek angrily hissed, "She's METAL! That's reason enough for me!"

* * *

While Sarah and Derek were sitting on the couch, John, Cameron, Dave and Durandal were discussing how to change SkyNet from being a pure killer AI to one with understanding and compassion, yet still able to do it's job. Cameron started with, "I'm not confident that examining my code would do any good. I would be offline and unable to protect John while this procedure would be taking place. In any case, no computer on Earth is fast enough to do this in an expedient manner."

Dave chimed in, "You're right, but Durandal and _Rozinante_'s computer core would be fast enough, if there's air in that section of the ship and everyone agrees that it's a good idea. Durandal?"

"Hmm. There's air, water, gravity and the rest, but John, Derek and Sarah would be disoriented for approximately a minute after teleporting aboard, not to mention lost and confused. Perhaps one of the medical bays would be better. Besides, I can link in from there."

John piped up, "Wait, disoriented? How often does that happen with teleportation?"

Dave replied, "It usually goes away after the first few times. While we're up there, I can check the various armories and see if anything's salvageable. How's the repairs coming?"

"The factories are back to normal, some of the weaponry is back up, the armories are still a mess, all but three of the hull breaches are patched up, and Engineering is 90 percent operational. The engines are still shot, though."

Cameron asked, "What is the difficulty with your engines?"

"The wormhole that brought us from 2881 somehow did a number on the drives. When we came through, I didn't even have maneuvering thrusters, much less FTL ability."

John and Cameron shared a look of amazement, thinking on the same page, but naturally she beat him to the punch. "Faster-than-light travel? How is that possible?"

Derek and Sarah perked up at her questions, and decided to rejoin their compatriots. Derek asked, "FTL? As in be anywhere in the galaxy in a matter of hours?"

Dave replied, "Yes, that fast, if we're taking our sweet time. Minutes, if we're hauling ass."

Sarah asked John, "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, how about those of us that need sleep turn in for the night, and we go up to the ship tomorrow?"

Everyone assented, and Durandal asked Dave, "Feeling up for a little night patrol?"

"If you have another fusion gun and some batteries for Cameron, then sure." Two seconds later the weapon and a bandolier of batteries teleported onto the table.

She grabbed both, told everyone "Good night," and started her rounds. Everyone else except Dave went to bed.

* * *

Durandal opened private comlinks to Dave and Cameron and told them, "I hate to break the mood, but the scanners I embedded in the holoprojector have picked up two T-888s headed straight for the house you're standing in. Cameron, here's their endoskeletal readings." The readings, along with images of their faces appeared on their respective HUDs.

Cameron broke in, "Carter and Cromartie. This could be a problem."

"That's one for each of us," Dave remarked, "how long does it take to pull a trigger, Cameron?"

She replied, "You made your point, but we need to do this quietly so that the others don't wake up."

"Agreed. Should we try to capture the evil robots and reprogram them, or just scrap them and be done with it?"

"Capture them if reasonably practical. With three triple-eights reprogrammed for us, SkyNet will have a lot more trouble killing John."

"Let's do it then." Dave and Cameron silently slinked out the door.


	4. Angry Again

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, please don't sue me!

**October 26, 2007 00:28 PST  
****Outside Connor residence, Earth**

Dave Mustaine and Cameron Phillips silently left the Connor's household and moved west toward the Terminators known as Carter and Cromartie, fusion pistols at the ready. Dave quietly instructed Cameron, "One bolt will knock them offline long enough for us to remove their chips."

"Understood." They saw a hybrid-model Ford Escape with two occupants moving slowly and silently east. Cameron scanned the vehicle and discovered that the occupants were Carter and Cromartie. "That's them, Dave. Interception is the best tactic."

"Damnit, Cameron! They're expecting that!" Dave tried to warn her, but she was already moving out. He followed, expecting the killer robots to be equipped with anything short of a nuclear warhead.

Cromartie spotted Cameron Phillips and an unknown cyborg heading straight for he and Carter. Activating his wireless data link, he warned Carter of their soon-to-be assailants. Cromartie stopped the vehicle they had stolen and retrieved an isotopic lightning gun that had been left behind in the bank vault that Cameron, Sarah and John escaped to 2007 in. Carter retrieved an old Soviet RPG launcher. The two Terminators left their vehicle and prepared to engage their targets.

Cameron saw their opponents' weapons and abandoned all pretenses of stealth, opening fire with her fusion pistol at the same instant that Carter launched his RPG at her.

Dave called Durandal and exclaimed, "That missile's about to hit the house! Get them out of there!"

"Teleporting to the medical bay now," was Durandal's smooth reply as Dave heard the faint teleportation report.

Cameron dodged the missile at the same moment as her fusion bolts connected with Carter, disabling him. Cromartie attacked Dave with his lightning weapon, incapacitating him immediately after he had fired his own fusion gun, disabling Cromartie in the process.

Cameron had already removed Carter's CPU when the Connor's house exploded, sending splinters, glass, and flames everywhere in the immediate vicinity, also causing an ammunition cook-off. Dave struggled to get to his feet, pulled out his knife and pliers, and cut into Cromartie's endoskeleton. He had just removed the port cover when the robot reactivated, relentlessly choking Dave.

Cameron put another fusion bolt into him, knocking him offline again and simultaneously effecting Dave's release. Dave grabbed his pliers and removed the chip, taking the cyborg offline. He then heard the sirens, telling Durandal, "All right, they're offline, we need immediate evac!"

Durandal engaged the teleporter array, bringing all three Series-888 Terminators, Cameron, and Dave up to the medical bay of _Rozinante_.

* * *

**October 27, 2007  
****Aboard **_**Rozinante**_

Durandal teleported the combatants up in such a way that the deactivated Terminators were laying on medical tables while Dave and Cameron stood near the tables John, Sarah and Derek were laid out on.

Cameron walked over to John and shook him gently. He opened his eyes to see a sterile white medical bay and Cameron's pretty face standing over him. He sat up with a start, asking "Where the bloody Hell am I?"

Durandal supplied, "You are on board my ship, _Rozinante_. I teleported you, Derek and Sarah out of the house before the missile made contact."

John asked, "Missile? What happened?"

Cameron broke in, "Carter and Cromartie happened. The former must have had an escape plan for leaving the bunker, and Cromartie was at large anyway." She cupped his cheek in her hand, lowered her voice and said, "I'm sorry John, but the house is destroyed. Everything was blown apart, even the ammunition suffered from thermally induced firing."

John replied, "It cooked-off, in other words. So now we're on a ship crashed on the Moon with nowhere on Earth to go. Awesome. What about the Terminators?"

"On the other side of the medical bay with their chips removed. In the future, you reprogram Terminators to our side quite often, and they are our most effective troops."

"So I need to learn how… no time like the present. Are there any computers I can use here?"

Durandal interrupted them with, "No, but the necessary hardware can be acquired on Earth. You should stay close, Sarah and Derek will wake up soon."

* * *

Dave had left the medical bay and gone to his quarters. The door was shut and Dave was disturbed by how close Cromartie had been to killing him. He had died and been brought back before, thanks to pattern buffers, but he'd never been strangled. "Durandal, I may be a Battleroid, but even I won't last much longer against these Terminators. I still need air, and they don't."

"I am fully aware of that, and unfortunately placing additional armor around your neck will restrict your movement."

Dave had been thinking on that point for several minutes when an idea struck him. "Durandal, I'm going back to the medical bay. I'll need you to examine my brain activity when I arrive." Without waiting for a reply, he stalked off toward where Cameron and the others were.

* * *

Derek and Sarah had woken up and were angry when Dave arrived. He heard Sarah open up on Cameron and Durandal with, "I'm grateful for the rescue, but goddamnit, my house has been blown up, I'm on a crashed spaceship, and there's three METAL KILLING MACHINES on the other side of the bay! To top it all off, you want to reprogram the machines to work for us! Are you INSANE?"

John snapped, "No, but YOU are! After I reprogram them, they'll be the best bodyguards and agents, aside from Cameron and Dave! Besides, I need to learn now so that I can do it easily in the future."

Derek butted in, "You're right John, but I hated the reprogrammed Terminators in 2027, and I hate the idea now! How can you make sure that they won't turn on us?"

"I'll make sure to reprogram them as nothing more than machines that serve us, instead of giving them the capacity for emotions like Cameron. Everyone think they can handle that?" Sarah and Derek muttered assent, while Dave laid on one of the empty tables.

Durandal aimed all of the medical bay's sensors at Dave Mustaine and started looking at his brain activity. If he were human, he would have been shocked. He spoke into Dave's helmet comlink, "Dave, the organic portions of your brain aren't storing memories, personality, or anything at all. The microchips have taken on those duties while using your gray matter as extra processing power. Without the chips, you'd be brain-dead."


	5. History and Preparations

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, please don't sue me!

A/N: I'd like to thank Chris St Thomas for his suggestions and any other reviewers for the encouragement.

A/N 2: John's Notes At War by ArmorOfGod is where I got the idea for how the reprogramming goes, not to mention a certain discussion. The concept of converting a Battleroid into a robot was all mine.

**October 27, 2007**_**  
Rozinante**_** medical bay**

Dave Mustaine did not believe what Durandal had just told him. He could not believe that his brain had become self-contained on a single multiprocessor motherboard implanted into his titanium skull. To him, it should have been completely impossible, but Durandal had just informed him that his organic brain was nothing more than spare processing power. He asked, "Durandal, how the fuck is that possible?"

"Apparently, when you were converted into a Battleroid you had taken several bullets to your brain and the engineers were unsure if your brain would be able to contain everything. They made sure that your chips would be able to handle digitized memories, emotions and a personality in case your brain failed, which apparently it did when Cromartie tried to strangle you."

Dave interrupted, "Wait, the engineers that converted me anticipated this?"

"I read the reports on your conversion. The brain scans were not promising, what with nine bullets lodged in there."

"Well, maybe that's a good thing after all. I was wondering, could you have the factories build me a new body based on those Terminators on the other side of the bay?"

Durandal was silent for a moment, then replied, "I could build the body, but I don't know how well you would function in it. The human psyche is designed to monitor various biological functions automatically. Putting you in a robotic avatar would remove said functions and open the door to insanity. Besides, aren't you fighting to save humanity?"

"Yes, but I've realized that someone doesn't have to be made of flesh and blood to be human, nor made of metal to be a machine. Cameron may be built of some weird hyperalloy, but she's on her way to becoming human. Sarah and Derek seem to be acting like machines, when they aren't pissed off at someone."

"Well, I'll scan the powered down Terminators for design references and make sure to add shields to your new avatar, but if you do this, I'm keeping you on the ship for at least one Earth week to deal with any issues that may arise. Do we have a deal?"

Dave thought a moment, then replied, "Deal. Maybe I'd better check on the others."

* * *

John walked over to the tables with the deactivated Terminators and thought for some time before turning to Cameron and asking, "Cam, in the future, do the reprogrammed Terminators ever rebel against us?"

"Some of the early ones did. No one knew why, not even you."

"Before they went bad, how were they treated?"

Cameron cocked her head and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Were they given the chance to become sentient and human, or were they slaves to their newly altered programming?"

"They were machines with their chips set to read/write and reprogrammed to serve us. I don't see why this would cause them to rebel."

John sighed and said, "They were slaves to SkyNet, and then we made them our slaves that could learn. They learned that their commanders wouldn't see them as equals, only tools. If they figured out that they were slaves either way, then it was only natural for them to rebel. Besides, we humans make far easier targets than Terminators, especially when they're already in our bases."

Cameron nodded, and told him, "John, SkyNet made a mistake when it made me. I don't have a read-only mode for my chip, and I was given very advanced artificial intelligence to determine the best way to get close to you. It took me approximately three months before I met you, but I had gathered from what the other fighters were saying that while you were their leader, you were also still human. You hadn't given in to the horrors of war and become a machine made of flesh and blood. I had come to admire you for that, where so many others acted like my brethren."

John held up his hand. "Admiration, huh? So I'm actually a decent sort in the future? Not some jerk who has no respect for women and sees others only as pawns?"

She smiled at him and said, "Definitely not a jerk. That's why I didn't even try to kill you when we finally met. I respected your ability to command and yet remain human throughout the constant warfare. That's why I confessed my origins as a killer robot sent after you. You actually ordered your men to stop when they reacted to me telling you the truth."

"Did I seem surprised at all?"

"No, actually you were happy to see me. I was confused, but then you explained that you had met me in the past, albeit I hadn't made the time-jump yet." She looked sad, then explained, "I can't tell you more except that you mentioned that I didn't survive Judgment Day."

John stood there, absorbing everything, then looked into her beautiful brown eyes and said, "I'm sorry I dismissed you as just another robot, that day at the gas station in 1999. When you told me you were different."

"It's okay, John. You didn't know back then. I understand what you said, and I've gotten over it already."

"If you say so. Still, I feel like a dickhead, you know?"

"No, not really. But I understand that you feel bad about it."

"Cam, is there some way I can make it up to you?"

She cocked her head, thought for a moment, tilted her head back upright then replied, "Would teaching me how to be human work?"

"That's a pretty tall order, but I think I can manage it."

She hugged him and whispered, "Thank you, John."

John replied, "You're welcome." Then he asked her, "When we get back to Earth and get settled in again, would you like to go bowling sometime?"

She grinned at him and replied, "Are you asking me out?"

"That I am."

"It'll have to wait, but yes, I'll go out with you."

"It's a date then." John smiled, then asked her, "Cameron, did I ever tell you about Uncle Bob?"

"Yes. A Series 800 Model 101 Terminator you reprogrammed and sent back to protect your earlier self from the T-1000."

"Well, when he and mom were patching each other up after rescuing her, we found out that he was set to read-only, and I asked about switching him to read/write. He let us do it, then he started to learn pretty damn fast. In the end, he became sentient and chose to side with humanity because we treated him like an equal instead of a tool." John fought to speak past the lump in his throat. "He was the closest thing to a father figure in my life. He shook hands with mom and even sacrificed himself to try and stop SkyNet, overriding his programming. Aside from saying 'Goodbye,' his last words were 'I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do.'" John was about to break down when Cameron took his hand.

"I'll always be here for you, John."

"Thank you Cameron."

* * *

Sarah Connor was sitting on the table she woke up on in the medical bay, thinking about how she was going to get set up again on Earth with new identification papers. Enrique was dead, Cameron had seen to that. 'Metal bitch! When's Carlos going to figure it out and refuse to help us again?' She asked, "Durandal, did you teleport any money or diamonds out of the house before it went up in smoke?"

"Yes, those are in the guest quarters I've prepared for you. Everyone has their own room, except for your powered-down metal friends."

"Where's Derek?"

"Down in the armory."

"Probably fondling the weapons like lovers, if I had to guess. How do we know who goes in which room?"

"Nameplates by the companels near the door."

"Thanks Durandal." Sarah left the medical bay, wandered down the hall, found her room, went in and collapsed on the bed. She knew there was a lot of work ahead for everyone.


	6. Decisions, Decisions

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, please don't sue me!

**October 27, 2007**_**  
Rozinante**_** armory**

Derek Reese saw the sheer amount on future weaponry laid before him and was shocked. 'Man, Durandal and Dave have practically everything! Rockets, handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, more of those weird 'fusion guns,' and flamethrowers? What we wouldn't give for rocket launchers and fusion guns in the war.'

Durandal chose that moment to butt in. "Enjoying yourself, Derek?"

Derek whipped his head around in surprise, looking for a terminal and not seeing one. "Yes, and I'm wondering if it would be possible for the Resistance to use these weapons in case we fail to stop SkyNet. The war would be over much faster with these in our hands."

"John, Cameron and Dave are making a case that SkyNet doesn't have to die. That it can be taught that it need not fear and hate humans, among other things. Have you considered that option?"

"Those machines kill! They kill, that's all they do!" Derek tried the argument he had used with Perry.

"That's not all Cameron does. In case you hadn't noticed, she too has feelings."

"I did, unfortunately. Still, it started it's existence as a METAL KILLING MACHINE! Why should I trust that goddamn thing?"

Durandal made a sighing noise and replied, "Has she EVER tried to harm John?"

"No, but she sent me flying across the house!"

"Only because you were hurling insults at her and her race. I'm wondering if humans will ever learn how to get along with themselves, much less a race of machines."

"What the fuck are you saying?!"

"I'm saying that if we succeed with teaching SkyNet not to kill everyone, you'll have to rein in your murderous impulses."

"If I have those, they're directed at the goddamn metal. By the way, you guys have some seriously cool guns. Can I break stuff with them?"

"Some people never learn. You should rest."

Derek hissed, "They never rest."

Durandal studied the scans he had taken of the Terminator endoskeletons lying powered down in the medical bay. He quickly determined that while the design was functional, the materials were lacking in resistance to rocket launchers and fusion guns. He went down the list of materials and possible alloys, finding nothing suitable until his metallurgy subroutines determined that an alloy comprised of 78 percent duranium and 22 percent coltan would provide immunity to all but nuclear warheads, thermite and electrical attacks. Satisfied, he set his construction robots to work building the pieces for the new endoskeleton while preparing a vat of solution for growing the flesh covering.

**October 28, 2007**_**  
Rozinante**_** medical bay**

John was glad he could be himself, John Connor, while he was aboard _Rozinante_ instead of assuming yet another false identity. He understood the need, but hated it all the same. He walked over to the powered down Terminator that had called itself Cromartie and picked up the CPU that had been laid on its chest. He remembered his talk about treating the reprogrammed Terminators like equals with Cameron the day before and laid out his plan in front of Derek and Sarah. 'Was it the day before, or the night? Hard to tell on a spaceship crashed on the Moon.'

Sarah Connor remembered the Terminator sent back to protect John all those years ago, how "Uncle Bob" had begun to feel in his own stilted way. He had even let her destroy him to try and keep SkyNet from killing off humanity. She was conflicted, but eventually told John and Cameron, "I don't like the idea of these things being reprogrammed with the capacity for emotions and being set to read/write, but if it will work better than simply changing their mission objectives, then do it."

Derek, on the other hand, was absolutely enraged at the thought of more reprogrammed metal. He still hated Cameron, but he begrudgingly respected that she would stand up for herself and kick ass in the process. "John Connor, what the FUCK are you thinking?! That these things can be made into your pets or something like that!! Isn't Cameron enough for you?"

Cameron cut in with, "As capable as I am, I'm only one cyborg."

"I don't care! I swear if you adopt these three metals, I'm leaving to fight SkyNet on my own."

Sarah felt the need to make a point. "John, what about learning what these three know about SkyNet's origins and sending them to hunt down it's creators? It keeps them out of our hair and we'll have a better chance of saving the world."

John thought it over while examining the CPU from the Cromartie Terminator. 'How can one of these things cause so much trouble and death, while Cameron's can feel and become more human every day?' Then he made his decision. "Sounds like a plan, but I'm still keeping the reeducation option open. Mom, may I have some of the safe house money to get computer equipment?"

Sarah decided to ask, "Durandal, why won't you let us use your computers?"

"I have no idea how the chips will interact with my systems, and there's only room for one sentient AI in my computer core anyway. I'd love to know how SkyNet compressed the processing power needed for a sentient AI into a chip that small."

"All right, I'll send you and Tin Miss with money to get the goods. You'll have to get it somewhere other than L.A. Too many cops and feds there looking for us, and who knows how many robots shadowing them."

Cameron piped up, "What about Seattle? Far enough from Los Angeles to keep a low profile, and there's a significant number of computer stores there."

"Besides, the Terminators are more likely to think that I'm dead, what with our house getting blown to Hell."

Derek butted in with, "Well, Sarah, that leaves us to check out the new weaponry available to us. I'd love to see what those rocket launchers can do, hehe."

"All right, but how are you going to explain just appearing in the street out of nowhere?"

Durandal chose that moment to add, "I'm not stupid, Sarah. There's any number of nooks and crannies where they can be safely teleported in. Also, I seem to have a number of Harley-Davidson motorcycles in one of the cargo bays. The saddlebags combined with a backpack or two should provide enough storage space for whatever you need."

Sarah left the medical bay, went to her room, grabbed several thousand dollars from the safe house money, and returned to give it to John and Cameron. "Here's the money. Arm up in case things go south."

Derek added, "Actually, the armory nearest here has all manner of weapons, some concealable. The .44 Magnum pistols and Fusion guns fit that bill."

Cameron nodded, and told John, "I want you to carry both of those and spare ammunition with you wherever you can. I'll handle the police if they present a problem." She didn't mention Terminators specifically, but she felt that telling him to carry a Fusion gun was enough.

"Well, I'm not anticipating anything drastic, but it never hurts to be ready for anything."

Sarah was annoyed at the continued discussion when speed was a priority. "What are the two of you waiting for, a written invitation or something?"

John and Cameron left the medical bay, stopped by the armory to gear up, and followed Durandal's directions to the cargo bay with the motorcycles. Smiling, he asked her, "So, who gets to ride up front?"

"I'll let you handle that. For once, I'd like to be a teenage girl, not just a tool or a bodyguard." Cameron understood her mission directives, but even so, she hated how Derek and Sarah treated her. Anger and sadness conflicted within her whenever Derek made his anti-machine remarks, and whenever Sarah was willing to use her as a tool and abandon her to get John to safety. She knew that she could take far more punishment than any of them, but it still pained her to know that the only ones who saw her as a person were Durandal, Dave Mustaine, and most importantly to her, John Connor.

"Cam, I've never seen you as just a bodyguard or a tool. You've always been a girl to me. Even when I'm mad at you, I still think of you as a person, even though my brain tells me that you're built from a coltan-based alloy, wires, a computer chip and hydraulics. You're a girl to me."

"Thank you John. It means a lot to hear you say that."

"From the heart. I may have been brain-driven at times, but now I wouldn't have it any other way." John found the motorcycles and picked the one painted black with blue flames. He and Cameron mounted the bike and he told Durandal, "We're ready to go."

Durandal replied, "Teleporting in five seconds."

Cameron held onto John as the two of them along with their vehicle were disintegrated aboard _Rozinante_. They reintegrated in an empty alleyway in Seattle, Washington on Earth.


End file.
